Why does Thinning Hair affect some people and not others?

Why does Thinning Hair affect some people and not others?

by HairstyleQuestions.com on September 14, 2007


Question: Why does Thinning Hair affect some people and not others? What causes thinning hair?

Answer: Many factors can result in thinning hair; genetics being the leading one. The male hormone androgen is blamed for the typical male-pattern baldness. That same hormone also found in women causes a milder thinning hair problem: hair thinning. Both males and females however are predisposed to the inevitable, age. Age and other factors such as styling, chemicals and heat can progress the loss of hair.

Hair is lost when the hair follicles are destroyed. This destruction can come from medical treatments, like chemo and x-rays, physical trauma, diseases, parasites or even chronic hair pulling. Some thinning hair results from dietary deficiencies, stress, drugs and simple abuse – whether in the form of debilitating hair styles (including pony tails and tight braids), tightly wrapping hair around rollers (especially with strong perm solutions) or excessive brushing. This sort of thinning hair at least leaves the follicles intact and thus offers hope for treatment success.

Thinning Hair

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But by far the most common types of thinning hair occur when scalp follicles are inhibited by the male hormone androgen. The hormone appears to shorten the growing cycle of hair, eventually causing it to become shorter and thinner. Finally, short fine hairs known as vellus hairs replace the normal, heavier growth.

Important Tip:

Its important to keep in mind that a variety of thinning hair problems can be avoided. Chemical treatment especially hair relaxers and perms are very detrimental to the hair follicle. Real tight pony tails also take their toll because of the constant pulling. Bad dieting also contributes to thinning hair.Weight loss in it self does not cause thinning hair. Your diet or what you don’t eat such as in inadequate nutrition is the factor for thinning hair. Hair is 98 % protein, if the body lacks in said protein than the hair is kicked started into the resting stage. Hair falls out after about three month of rest that can result in a massive shedding.

Then there is alopecia areata, a form of thinning hair that may be related in some way to allergy triggered by stress. Over a short period of time, sometimes beginning in childhood, a small patch of hair about the size of a quarter is lost. There has been some success in treating alopecia areata with DNCB (dinitrochloro benzene) and SADBE (squaric acid dibutyl ester), which cause a severe rash. For some reason, when you generate a tremendous inflammatory response on the skin, you begin to get hair growth. ”Essentially,” says Dr. Norman Orentreich, associate clinical professor of dermatology at New York University School of Medicine, who developed the technique of hair transplants, ”you use one allergy to fight the other.”

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